Fine Art Portfolio

Fine Art Portfolio

For most of my life my main goal as an artist was to create work that was photorealistic. I believed that the more my art looked like real life, the more “authentic” it must be. That changed a few years ago after I discovered the expressiveness of Egon Schiele and Jean-Michel Basquiat. They seemed to capture the actual souls of their subjects, even if the paintings were abstract. This is what I have been pursuing since then, but I need training to begin the long journey of developing my own methods and style as an artist. 

'Mollie' portrait of my sister as a baby, Oil on canvas

I work with many different media such as clay, wire, oil paints, or even the basic biro. My most recent work are the fruit and vegetable people. They began life as a sketch on a shopping list last year. I found it extremely interesting that everyone today seems to want everything to be flawless, from bananas to Snapchats to facial complexion. Of course none of us are flawless and in the drawings I was experimenting with finding beauty in distorted figures. I also realised that these sketches were a reaction against my earlier work, which was an attempt to create a flawless painting. A friend who is a fashion designer saw the pictures and asked me to create similar figures based on lighters and cigarettes instead of fruit for his start-up clothing brand, PUSHKA. Although the designs sold very well, I felt that it was no longer my art because the message had been distorted. Creating work that expresses something I care about and that people enjoy is extremely important to me, but so is maintaining integrity.

Copy of Euan Uglow Naked Lady, Oil on canvas

Above is 'Red Tuk Tuk', Acrylic on canvas.

'Baby and Bunny' Oil on canvas

'Gilles and Mary' Acrylic on canvas

'Borris, Bunce and Bean' Acrylic on canvas

'Still life 1', Oil on canvas

'Still Life 2', Oil on canvas

'John Jellicoe' My GCSE final piece. 1.5m tall 

A series of my water colours and a copy of a Egon Schiele

'Basquait interpretation' Acrylic on canvas

'Two little meneletons' Wire skeleton with clay forming the body and definition, finished off with acrylic

'Ciggy man', Acrylic and tissue used with PVA glue

'When life gives you lemons' biro and watered down acrylic on canvas and 'Brokilly' biro on canvas

Clockwise from top left 'Aubergina', 'Anyone asked the onion how he feels?', 'Stop and Go' and 'I can see in the dark'  Biro and coloured pencil on  canvas board.

'Grapes of wrath' Mixed media - Oil, water colour and biro